For the first time in twenty-four years, the Colorado Avalanche are hosting a game on Halloween!
Tonight will be a rematch against the Calgary Flames, who have been heating up of late with five wins in their previous six games.
Colorado Avalanche (7-5-1)
The Opponent: Calgary Flames (6-7-0)
Time: 8:00 P.M. MDT/10:00 P.M. EDT
Watch: ALT, ALT+ (Avalanche Local Broadcast Area), ESPN+, NHL Center Ice (Outside Regional Broadcast Area – US), SN, SN+ (Canadian National Broadcast)
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio KKSE-FM 92.5 FM
Colorado Avalanche
In their previous
outing the Avalanche, looking more Dr. Jekyll than Mr. Hyde, defeated the visiting New Jersey Devils by a 5-2 decision on Wednesday night, avenging their loss at the Prudential Center eight nights earlier. New Jersey, playing in the second game of a back-to-back series, started goaltender Jake Allen (newly-acquired goaltender Connor Hellebuyck played the previous evening in Dallas, earning his first win with New Jersey), who gave up five goals on forty-five shots. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped twenty of twenty-two shots for his sixth win of the season.
Nicolas Roy, who had missed the previous six games with injury, returned to the lineup, registering an assist on Nazem Kadri’s go-ahead goal in the second period. Defenseman Josh Manson, however, did not finish the game. Head coach Jared Bednar announced yesterday that Manson would miss eight weeks with an ankle injury.
Manson’s absence paves the way for increased usage for defenseman Noah Juulsen. Juulsen, who has played eight games for Colorado this season, has made a surprising but positive impression with Bednar.
“I love his attitude,” Bednar said to reporters Friday. “He wants to do anything he can to help. He’s a real positive guy, and he’s played great for us, so, yeah, we’re going to need him, obviously, with [Manson] being out for eight weeks.
“It’s nice to have. We’ve had a lot of years here where we’ve just had six ‘D’ here, and our seventh is a recall guy, and it’s nice to have him here because he’s with our group every day, you know? There’s no bringing guys up to speed, he just jumps right in and continues to play well.”
It’s likely that Blackwood closes out the home stand and Wedgewood starts when the Avs go on the road next week. They kick off another back-to-back pair of road games on Monday in Chicago before heading to Columbus the following day.
MacKinnon still leads all skaters in points (22) and assists (14). Artturi Lehkonen leads the team in goals (10).
A win tonight can pull the Avs within one point of second-place Utah (who won’t play until Sunday) in the Central Division standings. The Avs won the opening game of the season series against Calgary on October 08.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Nicolas Roy
Jaden Schwartz – Nazem Kadri – T.J. Hughes
Parker Kelly – Fedor Svechkov – Logan O’Connor
Defense:
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Brett Kulak – Sam Malinski
Noah Juulsen – Brent Burns
Between the Pipes:
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Calgary Flames
Calgary’s start to the season was anything but hot: they lost six of their first seven games of the season, including a 7-3 loss on home ice to Colorado on October 08. During their most recent four game homestand, however, things started to heat up. Thanks to stellar play by goaltender Devin Cooley, Calgary swept all four games, which featured victories over Minnesota, Toronto, and the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.
Unfortunately, Cooley’s heater came to an abrupt end this past Wednesday after sustaining an injury from a collision with Edmonton’s Colton Dach. Calgary wound up losing by a 4-0 decision, but rebounded last night on home ice with a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken. Goaltender Dustin Wolf recorded his first win in over two weeks, saving twenty-five of twenty-seven shots against.
Calgary, who has been without left wing Jonathan Huberdeau after he underwent hip resurfacing surgery last season, is seeing the injuries continue to pile up. Left wing Samuel Honzek, who last played against Colorado, is listed as week-to-week. Brennan Othmann also was injured during the Edmonton game after a fight with Ty Emberson.
With Cooley also listed as week-to-week, goaltender Arsenii Sergeev has been called up from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to back up Wolf. Maxim Tsyplakov, who had been a healthy scratch for Calgary’s previous five games, returned to the lineup against Seattle.
With Wolf playing on Friday, signs point to Sergeev making his first start of the season tonight. Sergeev has only one prior NHL start in his career, a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on April 16 last season.
When asked last night how much confidence he might have in Sergeev’s abilities to step up while on the road, head coach Ryan Huska said, “He did a really good job last year when he came up and played a game for us. He made a lot of saves that he probably shouldn’t have made, so I have a lot of confidence in his ability.”
Joel Farabee and Matt Coronato lead all Calgary skaters in points (14). Rookie Matvei Gridin leads the team in goals (5), while Coronato leads the team in assists (11). Right wing Adam Klapka leads all Calgary skaters in penalty minutes (37), second only to Ottawa’s Nick Cousins (42) across the League.
Tonight’s game is the start of a three game road trip for Calgary, and marks their only visit to Denver. They return home to the Saddledome for a three game homestand on Thursday.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Joel Farabee – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Aydar Suniev – Morgan Frost – Yegor Sharangovich
Matvei Gridin – Martin Pospíšil – Ryan Strome
Maxim Tsyplakov – Jonathan Castagna – Adam Klapka
Defense:
Kevin Bahl – Šimon Nemec
Jake Middleton – Zach Whitecloud
Yan Kuznetsov – Zayne Parekh
Between the Pipes:
Arsenii Sergeev
Dustin Wolf
